Literary notes about adventitious (AI summary)
The term "adventitious" has been employed in literature to signify qualities or manifestations that are incidental rather than intrinsic. Philosophers such as Santayana, William James, and John Locke use it to describe aspects—like emotions, functions, or relations—that are not inherent to the nature of things but emerge as extra or accidental additions [1][2][3][4]. Similarly, in botanical texts and reports, the word is applied to describe plants’ secondary growth—such as buds, shoots, and roots that appear in abnormal or opportunistic locations—emphasizing their circumstantial origin [5][6][7][8][9]. Across these varied contexts, "adventitious" captures the idea that certain elements acquire meaning or functionality through their incidental occurrence rather than by being essential components of the subject at hand [10][11].
- It is precisely by virtue of this adventitious element that the re-enacted feeling takes its place in nature and becomes an object of knowledge.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - In the first place it says there are no intrinsic natures that may change; in the second it says there are no adventitious relations.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - Humism thus says that its causality is something adventitious and not necessarily given when its other attributes are there.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - And which since all men do not know, nor can distinguish from other adventitious truths, we may well conclude there are no such.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke - Growth this summer from adventitious buds has been poor.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - Such a response would indicate that adventitious shoots may arise from roots and that root cuttings may be successful.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - A shoot deprived of roots and dropped in some moist place is soon covered with bright green leaves and adventitious roots.
— from The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by T. H. Pardo de Tavera - —A plant with a scaly rhizome and adventitious roots from which spring the stems, some of which bear leaves and others flowers.
— from The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by T. H. Pardo de Tavera - —A vine whose runners entwine themselves among the tops of the highest trees, giving off many adventitious roots which seek the earth.
— from The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by T. H. Pardo de Tavera - Military institutions, adventitious and ill-adapted excrescences as they usually are, can acquire rational values in various ways.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - Finally, the principle of preparation makes necessary recourse on a large scale to the use of adventitious motives of pleasure and pain.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey
